The second kind of people who have their home in the desert are the
Bedouin. These are Arabs who once lived in another desert in Arabia,
but long, long ago many of them came to live in the Sahara. The
Bedouin live in tents made of poles with dark cloth of goats' hair or
camels' hair spread across them for walls and roof. They travel in
large tribes, and put up their tents on a small oasis where there is
no town. These people still live as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived
long ago, before the Israelites built their towns. On the oasis their
camels, horses, sheep, and goats can find water to drink and grass to
eat. When all the food has been eaten they pack up the tents and
everything they have and put it on the backs of the animals. Then the
men and women and children all mount camels and horses and donkeys,
and the whole tribe moves to another oasis. These people drink
camels' milk and eat the dates and bananas and other fruit they find
where they pitch their tents. They also bring these fruits to the
Berber towns, and exchange them for flour to make bread and for coffee
to drink. Coffee is a berry which is first roasted, then, when water
is boiled and poured on to it, it makes a strong, brown liquid which
Arabs and Europeans like to drink. The women weave camels' hair into
clothes and blankets, and goats' hair into tent-covers. The Bedouin
men are always ready to fight with their guns and lances; sometimes
they are robbers, but most of them travel from place to place, only
fighting if others attack them. There is always a chief in each tribe
of Bedouin, and in each village of the Berbers, but away in the desert
there are many bands of robbers who will not obey any law, and
everyone has to fight for himself against these people. The Bedouin
love their animals, especially their camels and their horses. It is
quite natural that they should do so, because often a man would die in
the desert if his horse or camel would not work well and carry him
faithfully until they reached water. Sometimes when the people lose
their way in the pathless sand, the horses and camels can find it.